The Best-Kept Secret in Seattle

My love of Seattle is pretty well known. My love of vinyl is definitely known. One of my LinkedIn talents is crate digging, I swear. Seattle has some amazing record stores. In fact, I have a hard time going to other cities and not comparing their stores to Seattle. My favorite record store in Seattle is a pretty well-kept secret. 

Spin Cycle sits in a small storefront on Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, next to some great coffee and a great used clothing store. Its owner, Jason, has been well-known for close to a decade on Capitol Hill because he previously worked at Gruv, which was a great little shop in its own right. After Gruv closed, Jason opened Spin Cycle. Spin Cycle only sells vinyl, video games, and DVDs. It is the perfect boutique stop for collectors.

Spin Cycle exemplifies what I love about record stores. The staff are always friendly and engaging. A lot of the bigger record stores, it feels like the staff doesn’t care about you as a customer. They treat you as just another potential sale. Used record stores, book stores, etc., benefit from engaging in conversation with customers because they can provide great recommendations of things you might never heard of. I have definitely gained some musical knowledge thanks to conversations I have had with Jason and his staff.

Because it’s a smaller store, Jason curates a lot of what they bring in for sale. I’ve found a lot of cool imports, hard to find records, and out of print albums there. The staff will also order records for you that they don’t have or will help you search for some random Japanese import of your favorite Built to Spill album.

One of the bigger draws is the video game section. I have seen from hard-to-find NES games, like the golden Legend of Zelda, to PS4 games. They also have systems to sell, many times for a better price than GameStop. If you are nostalgic for N64-era Nintendo, Spin Cycle is the right place for you.

A lot of Spin Cycle’s inventory is purchased from customers looking to sell. They tend to pay better than most places for used records or video games. The uniqueness of Capitol Hill allows for that wild mixture of records to show up in the store.

I highly recommend making a stop there if you ever are in Seattle. I don’t necessarily want this to be the best-kept secret in Seattle anymore.